[Asia Economy Reporter Joeslgina] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the so-called 'home-staying' population has increased, causing a surge in data traffic for telecom companies in March. In particular, more than half of the traffic was used for video viewing.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 5th, the total wireless communication traffic of the three mobile carriers in March was 639,468 terabytes (TB), an increase of 9.5% compared to the previous month and 44% compared to the same period last year. This is interpreted as the effect of the rapid increase in COVID-19 confirmed cases at the time, which led to active telecommuting and social distancing measures.
The 5G service, commercialized in April last year, also influenced the traffic growth this year. In March, 5G traffic recorded 152,729 TB, an increase of 15.7% compared to the previous month. This accounts for 24% of the total traffic for the same month. Traffic excluding 5G also increased by more than 40,000 TB compared to March last year before 5G commercialization. LTE traffic recorded 473,543 TB, up 7.5% from the previous month, and Wi-Fi traffic recorded 13,109 TB, up 14.2%.
The wireless traffic usage per LTE subscriber was 10.06 GB (10,308 MB). This is the first time since the introduction of LTE service that the wireless traffic usage per subscriber has exceeded 10 GB.
More than half of the March traffic was confirmed to be due to video viewing. Looking at the traffic status by content type, video traffic was about 7,410 TB, approaching 60% of the total. It is analyzed that, due to social distancing reducing outdoor activities, the viewing time of videos on platforms such as YouTube and Netflix increased. Social Network Service (SNS) traffic also recorded 1,802 TB in March, accounting for 14.1% of the total traffic.
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